Summary/ Discussion Questions for May 4, 2010
Summary:
Malcolm Gladwell states that little things can create large differences, by cauing a Tipping Point. The Tipping point occurs due to the results of any of three factors of an epedemic. These factors are the Law of the Few, the Stickiness Factor, and the Power of Context. Sometimes only one factor is present and can cause the Tipping Point, and sometimes all three are present. The examples that Gladwell focuses on are the Hush Puppy epedemic, the New York crime rate, and the spread of Syphilis. The Three Rules of Epedemics are what cause the great changes in these examples, and several other real life factors as well. Gladwell will attempt to further explain each one of these factors in the next chapters, and go into further details.
Discussion Questions:
Do you feel that the different factors are connected? Do you feel that some factors may be more important than others? Can you think of other factors that may explain the rapid change in his examples? Do you feel that Malcolm Gladwell is correct about his theory? Do you agree with his reasoning?
Summary/ Research/ Connection for May 5, 2010
Summary:
Gladwell spends the first part of the chapter talking about those who have the ability to create Tipping Points. He states that these people are very socially inclined. For example, Paul Revere was able to use his social skills to effectively communicate his message to the people. William Dawes, however, did not have this ability. He calls the people who have this social ability Connectors. These people attatch others to even more people, and widen their span of friends. Maxwell's example of a connector was Roger Horchow. Roger has a wide span of weak ties, which he has an impulse to create. However, these small ties can be enough to have large impacts. For example, when he was getting the rights to Girl Crazy?, his connections were able to get him the rights, even though he didn't praticularly kow these people. Gladwell presents Roger Horchow as the kind of person who can create a Tipping Point. Some individuals have a talent which allow them to be very socially connected, and allows them to create a Tipping Point. By analyzing these people, we can see the types of people who can influence an event.
Research:
Paul Revere was one example presented by Malcolm Gladwell. Paul Revere was a silversmith, but also a revolutionary figure. He was politically involved through a series of connections, which may show his similarities to a connector. Despite his fame, Paul Revere was captured the longest of the three riders by the British police. Milgram was another mantioned by Gladwell. Milgram is a psychologist, and tries social experiments. Besides the one mentioned in the book, he also carried out an obediance experiment. In this, someone was asked to shock someone every time they gave a wrong answer, and increase the voltage for each wrong answer. The testers were given a shock to show it worked, but no one was actually being shocked. Behind a wall was the person answering the questions, who was acting like they were being shocked. If the testers asked if they had to shock the person, the examiners said they had too, as it was their job. Several people went above the 450 voltage mark, because they were following orders.
Works Cited
"Paul Revere A Brief Biography." The Paul Revere House. Web. 4 May 2010. <http://www.paulreverehouse.org/bio/bio.shtml>.
"Stanley Milgram." Stanley Milgram. Web. 04 May 2010. http://www3.niu.edu/acad/psych/Millis/History/2003/stanley_milgram.htm.
Connection: This book discusses how people are connectors. By taking the short quiz, I know that I am not a connector, scoring a measly score of 10. However, I don't feel that i know any connectors, although there might be someone like a connector in our school. Is anyone in our group a connector? Our class? Our grade? Our school? During the meeting, despite talking about the essential question, these would be good questions to analyze. Also, it would be good to know if anyone knows any people who seem like connectors out of school.
Summary/ Passages for May 7, 2010
Summary:
These parts of the chapter have finished the discussion about Connectors and Mavens. Connectors are the people who have a web of several connections. These connections are not exactly strong friendships, but weak ties. However, these weak ties can be very powerful when combined. These weak ties are able to bring different people from different worlds together. Mavens are the people who know about several different things. They know where to get the best deals, what is happening in the world, and are helpful in trying to share this knowledge with others. Mavens are the ones who can reccomend something, such as Hush Puppies, to a Connector, which can then spread like wildfire through the Connector's weak ties. Mavens can combine with Connectors to make small events grow large. By knowing a vast amount of information, these people are able to reccomend things to people. If it reaches a Connector, it can spread through the weak ties, turning the simple of event of a Maven reccomending something to a Connector, to an epedemic spreading to several different worlds. when analyzing the past, Connectors and Mavens are the ones to analyze. For example, Paul Revere's midnight ride shows not only his skills as a connector, but as a Maven as well. Paul Revere had several connections to several different groups of people, and was a person in charge of gathering information on the British. Thus, Paul Revere's skills can be analyzed in looking back at people.
Passages:
Page 48, Paragraph 3: In this paragraph, Gladwell classifies, as well as describes the importance of, Connectors. They either come from many different worlds, or seek to find people from different worlds. Thus, they are able to connect people from different worlds.
Page 54, Paragraph 2: In this large paragraph, Gladwell discusses "the strength of weak ties." These weak ties can be more important than strong ties. A person someone has formed a weak tie with are from a different world. They are able to know things that the other may not know. They are able to bring the person into their world, while a someone with a strong tie would be from the same world.
Page 62, Paragraph 2: Here, Mavens are classified. They are the people who know all about the world. They know the best deals, the best places to go, and they are naturally urged to share this information with people.
Page 66, Paragraph 1: Here, it is stated that Mavens like to help people solve their problems, through their experiences solving their own. Gladwell also assumes that Mavens solve their own need to help others by helping others with their problems.
Page 69, Paragraph 1: Here, Maxwell shows the difference between Mavens and Connectors. A connector can contact several people with advice, and some may take it. However, a Maven can give advice to a few people, and all of them will take it. However, both are the kinds of people that fall under the Law of the Few, and can start epedemics.
Summary/ Dicussion Questions for May 10, 2010
Summary:
The reading finishes the section on the law of few by identifying Salesmen, and has now moved on to the stickiness factor. Salesmen are people who are able to persuade other people. They are able to meet deals on their own terms, and can persuade anybody. With the social expressions that cause people to get excited, and the ability to convince people to make deals, salesman are able to create a Tipping Point. Their excitedness can make others excited. Their expressions make people mimic them. These characteristics allpow salesmen to be amazing persuaders, and can be the people who can cause a tipping point. As such, it is important to analyze in history the people that are able to persuade others. The stickiness factor is the newest desciption given by Malcolm Gladwell, and it is the ability for people to remember an event. Small events can easily become large if it does not become forgotten. The biggest example used by Gladwell is Sesame Street. They found out when children watched, if they were paying atention, and if they were actually learning. They developed ways to evaluate the stickiness factor of an event. When examining a small event in history that had large effects, it is important to see how people reacted to it, and if they continued to react to it, meaning if it stuck to people.
Discussion Questions:
We've now met all of the different types of the Law of the Few. Can you think of any historical figures, such as Paul Revere, that have the qualities of one of these special people? Do you have anyone in your life that you feel meets the criterea of one of these people? Is it possible for one person to have the characteristics of all 3 kinds?
We've been introduced to the stickiness factor. Do you feel like any events have 'stuck' to you? What defines something as sticky? How long does something have to stick, in order to create a tipping point? Can any of the above people, defined by the Law of the Few, create 'sticky' messages?
Summary/ Discussion questions for May 12, 2010
We have finished Chapter 3, about the Stickiness Factor, and moved on to the first part about the Power of Context. In the second half, we learn about some flaws in Sesame's stickiness, and how Blue's Clues improved on it. Sesame street suffers on being focused on kids and adults. Their is fancy wordplay in Sesame street that kids are not able to understand, and cause them to lose interest. Another problem is that it doesn't cause much interation with kids, meaning that they are just staring at a box. Finally, it is only just multiple short events, instead of just a story. Blue's Clues is amazingly sticky in that it does many things Sesame street doesn't, but also takes the good aspects. One things Blue's Clues does is repetition, which kids love. Another things it is allows for kid interaction. It gives wide pauses in which kids have times to give answers to Steve, an interactive host. It contains puzzles for kids to solve, and gives them a riddle to solve about Blue. Finally, by doing this, it creates a story, which children enjoy. The results are obvious in that kids create temporal worlds. When looking at history, one must look for what messages can stick to people. In the first part about the Power of Context, we learn that small changes in an enviroment are the causers of problem. This is the broken window threory. In an enviroment with lots of grafitti, crime will go up. By removing grafitti, crime will lower. When looking at history, it is important to look at the small changes in enviroment, as these can have a great impact. By making only a few small changes, a huge difference can be made.
Discussion Questions:
Do you feel that shows like Sesame Street and Blues Clues(If you watched them) have helped you at all? What sticky messages in history can you think of? Did you ever make temporal worlds?
Have you noticed any small changes in your enviroment (School, neighborhood, home) that have made a difference? Do you believe that small changes in enviroment can influence society? Can the broken window theory be used to an adavntage? Do you think that the context can make people like those described in the Law of the Few?
Summary/ Discussion Questions for May 13, 2010
Summary: (From now on, I will put a separate section adressing the Essential question, instead of mixing it in with my summary)
The reading finished up the first part of the power of context. Here, Malcolm Gladwell shows of how the outer enviroment affects the inner person. For example, when people were put in a prison enviroment, people changed into completely different people. People taking the roles of guards turned vicious and cruel. People taking the roles of prisoners became panicked, and even tried to rebel. Just by moving into a different enviroment, people changed completely. What actions people are taking is the other factor in how people behave. For example, while someone was late, they did not try to help a person lying on the street, while someone with time to spare, helped the person. Based off of this section, the Power of Context is that your enviroment and your actions can have huge effects on yourself. The Broken Window Theory, introduced earlier in the chapter, shows that the littlest of changes can have the largest of effects on a society.
Essential Question:
A single event can have a large impact if it changes the enviroment. When the enviroment changes, people will change. A single change can be the push which creates A Tipping Point. For example, when someone puts grafitti on the wall, other people see that grafitti. The power of Context states that this will cause them to be a little more influenced towards crime. If one person put up grafitti, it could cause others in that enviroment to put grafitti somewhere else, causing a tipping point in grafitti. By knowing this, it can help make descisions today. In places where crime is high, it is best to try and fix the enviroment. Where large problems appear, trying to fix the underlying source, rooted in the enviroment, will make a large difference. In the same way that grafitti on a wall can raise crime rates dramatically, removing grafitti from the wall can have the same dramatic effect in reverse. When trying to improve people's characteristics, it is best to do it in an enviroment that will positively effect them, lest the opposite effect occur.
Discussion Questions:
Have you ever done something uncharacteristic of you based off of your enviroment? Do you agree with Malcolm's statement that criminals are created from their enviroment, and not from internal problems? Do you agree that a good neighborhood is more important than a good family? When describing people, do you accept that they can be two different people, or do you clump the two personalities together?
What is the derivative of x2 ? Based off of the experiment on page 161, do you think I'm smarter than you?
Summary/ Research/ Connection for May 14, 2010
Summary:
In this chapter, Malcolm Gladwell talked about the Rule of 150. It is supported by the research of Robin Dunbar. The neo-cortex, a part of the brain in humans, differed in groups of primates. The size of the Neo-Cortex was proportional to the size of the group. Robin Dunbar created a fairly accurate equation for determining the size of a group of primates based off of the size of the Neo-Cortex. Based off of the size of the human Neo-cortex, Dunbar says that humans can handle having social relationships with about 150 people. This rule is proven further by the successful application of it. Armies are often divided into groups of less than 200 people, since this allows the soldiers to work together, and makes up for any extra soldiers that could ba added. Comapnies such as Gore, which was the prime example of Gladwell, utilize this rule and have factories separated for a group of 150 people. Gore is a multimillion dollar company which has had great success with this. Working in groups is a common action in human society, and is highly necessary for memory. Couples help share memories, so that each does not have to remember anything. The compiled knowledge bank is greater than someone would be on their own. Ya-ya, an example of something that passed the Tipping point through use of the Rule of 150, had people communicate in groups, which thus helped keep the message sticky. Reading clubs read the book and discussed it, sharing it through their groups, causing the book to tip.
Essential Question:
Once again, Gladwell stresses the immportance that a single event can have. By communicating in groups, people share information, and a message spreads through word of mouth. When spreading information, it can be good to spread it through groups that will talk about it, not only spreading a message quicker, but making it stickier as well. After seeing the effects of the Rule of 150, seen in the above paragraph, it would be good idea to use it to one's advantage. When managing groups of people, it is best to divide people into groups of 150. In groups of 150, people know each other, and know who has the best expertise for different tasks. When there is 150 people, they can share and store information effectively. If it turns larger than 150 people, information can no longer spread effectively. Thus, when managing people, they should spread out into groups of 150 people.
Research: The Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood is a book about a mother and a dughter who argue over an article which lists the mother as child abuser. The mother is part of a sisterhood called the Yayas. The Yayas wish to bring the two back together. As such, they convince Vivi to send a scrapbook called Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood to Siddalee. Sidda only gains more questions about her mother from this, and the story into both of their lives begins.
Gore was a unique company mentioned in our book. Today, it has 9000 "associates", located in over 30 countries. Their most known products are the Gore-Tex ones, which are the Fabrics created by the company. They do not have bosses, but sponsors. This produces an efective community in which all can work well. It has 4 guiding principles that associates follow: fairness to each other and everyone with whom they come in contact, freedom to encourage, help, and allow other associates to grow in knowledge, skill, and scope of responsibility, the ability to make one's own commitments and keep them, and consultation with other associates before undertaking actions that could impact the reputation of the company. Works Cited "About Gore." W. L. Gore & Associates. Web. 13 May 2010. <http://www.gore.com/en_xx/aboutus/index.html>. "Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood: A Novel by Rebecca Wells." HarperCollins Publishers — Home of Collins, William Morrow, Avon, Harper Perennial, Rayo, Amistad, Caedmon Audio. Web. 13 May 2010. http://www.harpercollins.com/books/9780060173289/Divine_Secrets_of_the_YaYa_Sisterhood/index.aspx.
Connection:
While we are reading The Tipping Point, we are being the kinds of people who could create a tipping point for the book. In this chapter, they talk about how people would read and discuss a book, and it caused a Tipping point for it. And nearly every school day, we come to class to talk and discuss about the book. As a reading group, we are in fact part of what we are reading.
Our high school is currently at a rather low population, lower than 150. Right now, people are able to know each other well. When/if we pass the 150 mark, will this kind of social web we have fade?
Have we ever felt the limits of the Rule of 150? I doubt many of us have made 150 social connections, so I doubt it in that way. But has it ever occured in another way?
Summary/ Research/ Connection for May 17/ 18 2010
Summary:
Having presented all of the information to use, Malcolm Gladwell has begun giving examples for his claims. We have read through his examples of Airwalk shoes, and have starting reading about the spread of smoking and suicides. Airwalk shoes started as a rather contained epedemic, since it had not yet become worldwide. eventually going worldwide, they hit their Tipping Point in the Mid-1990's. This was due to their fantastic advertising, which showed what Gladwell calls Translation. These commercials looked into what the innovators, the people who first like a product, were looking into. They then focused the shoes based off of that information. By that time, the fad would have become mainstream, meaning that it has spread to the majority, and the company would take advantage of it. They tweaked the popular subject and made it funny. They translated a popular subject into something everyone could understand. This made their products sticky, and made them sell well. In the nextsection, we learn about how smoking and suicides are spreadable. When someone commits suicide, and it is publically spread, they give other people subconcious permission to kill themselves. This causes suicide rates to increase. Smoking is similar. When someone cool smokes, other people are likely to smoke as well. The cool people are the translators of the product. The cool people themselves aren't cool because they smoke, but they smoke because they are cool. Advertising had little to do with the spread of smoking, but it those few, illiustrated by the Law of the Few, who push smoking forward.
Essential Question:
These chapters were very important in showing how important a single person can be, and even talk about issues that are discussed today. The first section outlines how important translators, the people who allow people to understand things from specialized worlds, can be. In understaning rumors spread, translators are important. They leave unnecessary details out, exagerate some parts, and tweak the rest. If one had to spread through a rumor, they would have to use these tools to make the rumor spreadable. The most important application in these sections refers to smoking and suicide. When trying to lower the number of people who smoke, it is important to understand why it starts. It is not because of smoking commercials, which are extremely limited, but because of the "cool" people who smoke, who are salesman providing the message that smoking is ok. People who smoke even overestimate the number of years of life they lose. Thus, if someone wanted to lower the number of people smoking, they shouldn't aim for smoking commercials or try to tell people that smoking will ruin their lives, but instead try to convince poeple that smoking is not "cool", which is why poeple try in the first place.
Research:
Airwalk is a footwear company founded in 1986. It has sponsored famous skaters such as Tony Hawk and Jason Lee. It had a great increase in sales in the 1990's, when it decided to go mainstream. However, older fans of the store were not as fond for the new mainstream versions. In 2004, they were bought by Collective Liscensing International. They were very well advertised after the company was remade. They have decided lately to reproduce some of their more original brands. Crossing the Chasm is a book written by Geoffrey Moore in 1991, and was mentioned in the section. The book speaks about innovators, early adopters, and the early majority mainly. It discusses on how to cross the chasm that comes between the early adopters and the early majority. It speaks about how the innovators and early majority have to be captured before the chasm can be crossed. Innovators and early adopters are talked about during our book, to show how popularity of certain items spread. Works Cited "Airwalk." Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Web. 16 May 2010. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Airwalk>.
Iskold, Alex. "Rethinking 'Crossing The Chasm'" ReadWriteWeb - Web Apps, Web Technology Trends, Social Networking and Social Media. Web. 16 May 2010. http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/rethinking_crossing_the_chasm.php.
Connection:
These sections had examples of the material we have learned about, and we are now getting into things that are closer to our own lives. The first section speaks about many different things.
Do we have any translators at our school? Would the translator be a connector, salesman, or maven?
Are you an innovator, an early adopter, an early majority, a late majority, or a laggard? Do you know any people who are innovators?
Do you know any rumors, where it has recieved the kind of tweaks named in the chapter? Have you spread rumors, and tweaked them a bit?
Do you know anyone who makes smoking seem "cool"? Have you ever considered smoking because of it?
Summary/ Passages for May 21, 2010 Summary:
With this assignment, we have finished the book. It has finished the section on smoking, and has moved on to the conclusion and the afterword. In the smoking section, Malcolm Gladwell addressed more issues of smoking, and introduced two solutions to the smoking solution. He starts by talking about chippers, and that many people try smoking, but few people become regular smokers. It was found that this was proportional to how good they felt after their first smoke. People who got a strong buzz after their first smoke would become regular smokers, but those who didn’t feel anything would not start up a habit of smoking. Some people who smoke do not actually smoke every day. This is greatly determined by the person’s genes, since it determines how much nicotine the person can take in one day. People with high tolerance might be heavy smokers, while people with low tolerance will probably not smoke. Influencing people to not smoke is also very difficult, even for parents. The peers of the kids are greater at influencing kids to smoke, rather than parents. In fact, the fact that adults don’t want teenagers to smoke makes the kids very prone to smoking, as they want to be rebellious and take place in something dangerous. Gladwell’s first idea of on how to stop smoking is to chemically remove the need for smoking. When people have depression, they have a lack of neurotransmitters in the brain that help regulate mood. When people smoke, they actually ingest some of these chemicals. This allows people who are depressed to get over their depression through smoking. In the same way, smoking can be stopped by providing medicine that provides these chemicals. This is because it can add the chemicals needed to prevent depression, meaning people do not have to smoke to get these chemicals. His second idea is to make experimentation safer. Few people who ever tried drugs ever became regular users. However, there were a lot of people who did try. Kids will experiment, and the goal is to make sure that they don’t become hooked from the experiment, not stop them from experimenting. Experimenting is the way they learn.
The next section was Gladwell’s conclusion on his theory. He states how large events, despite our natural belief, do not have to be the result of large changes or large projects. Changing things in a modest, but precise, way will have the biggest impact. He states that people react based off their environment more than what they feel they should do. A simple change in environment can radically change a person’s personality. Overall, he states that all it takes to create a dramatic change is a small change in the right place.
Gladwell’s final section is the afterword, where he speaks about the effects of his book, the changes in some of his theories, the things he left out in his book, and the location of the elusive people in the law of the few. He discusses how people were able to use the information in his book to make modest changes in order to make large changes. However, he also talked about the Columbine shootings, and how they created a shooting epidemic, which he calls an epidemic of isolation, which he did not think was possible in the western teen world. However, he also states how it only makes sense to the teens that inhabit that world. Gladwell mentions that he did not talk much about immunity in his book, even though it is still important. He discusses how people are becoming immune to the telephone, emails, and commercials. They are all easy forms of communication, but there are so many have become immune to them. He states that the cure to this immunity is Connectors, Mavens, and Salesman. Continuing this he tells us how to find these people. He says that Connectors find you most of the time, with their large web of connections. He says that maven traps are needed to catch mavens. People have to provide something to mavens, so they can start an epidemic in the person’s favor. For example, Lexus provided large amounts of service to people during a recall. Soon after, mavens spread the news of such great service to people, improving Lexus’s sales. Overall, Gladwell’s theories have had a great effect on people and continue to be true, even today.
Essential Question:
Now that we have finished the book, the essential question is much easier to answer. The importance of a single event can be huge, depending on how it plays out. If it is aimed at the correct area, it can cause an epidemic. Gladwell’s big example is hush puppies. A few kids started wearing Hush Puppies. Soon, everyone started wearing Hush Puppies as it tipped. A small event carried out by a connector, maven, or salesman can have a large effect. A connector can spread something through a giant web of acquaintances. A maven can spread things with the expertise on certain subjects. A Salesman can spread something through the power of persuasion. An event can also have large effect if it changes the environment. We learned that removing graffiti from the walls was able to reduce crime in the city, and that telling people they were late turned them into a bad civilian. In the same way, any event effecting the environment can have an effect on the personality of the people. Observing these people and these events, it is easy to make a decision on how to maximize the potential of an event. When trying to create an epidemic of any kind, large changes are not needed, but precise changes are. Look for the connectors who would be able to spread information through large groups of people. Look for the mavens who are the experts in the subject, who are able to spread epidemics with their great knowledge. Look for the Salesman who would be able to persuade people with their great enthusiasm and convincing nature to spread the epidemic. Try to change the epidemic slightly to make it stick. In order to do this, try to keep people interested in the epidemic, with an incentive to pay attention, and to make it understandable, so people will not turn away in frustration. Finally, the event should try to change the environment in its favor. So if someone is trying to reduce crime in an area, reduce the amount of lesser crimes by removing graffiti and enforcing punishments for trivial crimes. Overall, when trying to create a large effect from a single event, use specific types of people and focus on making changes to specific areas.
Passage Master:
Pg. 234 2nd Paragraph: This states that the stickiness of a cigarette for a smoker is related to their first smoke. The better their first smoke, the heavier smoker they became. Here is an example of the stickiness of an epidemic.
Pg. 241 2nd Paragraph: This paragraph shows the result of nature vs. nurture being in nature’s favor. It states how kids and their biological kids are very similar, while kids and their adoptive parents are not very similar at all. However, it takes care not to confuse us that the environment isn’t important. In fact, it says that the most important environmental influence is not parents, but peers. This is important in realizing how the smoking epidemic spreads.
Pg. 246 2nd Paragraph: This paragraph talks about the success of the drug Zyban in curing smokers of their addiction. However, it shows an important part of curing the epidemic. In order to stop something, you have to remove the need for them. By adding the neurotransmitters that people suffering from depression lack, that smoking also provides, people no longer feel they have to smoke. In order to stop something like smoking, you have to remove the need for it. You have to remove the stickiness of it.
Pg. 256 2nd Paragraph: Here, Gladwell states the importance of “Band-Aid” solutions. Large complicated solutions do not have to be the cause of large changes. Small changes can be the sources of large changes, which is an important part of Gladwell’s theory.
Pg. 271 2nd Paragraph: This passage shows the unique community of teens. He shows how epidemics of isolation, which he thought was impossible among western teenagers, are actually possible. He shows how teens now have technology to communicate with each other which replaces the communication with parents. Teenagers have their own culture now which epidemics are able to spread.
Pg. 275 2nd Paragraph: Here Gladwell shows the importance of immunity and the cure for it. Today, technology has allowed for easy communication, but we have become immune to it due to its overuse. Gladwell states that those mentioned in the Law of the Few are the cure, as they are masters of word of mouth, which is made more important by the immunity to easy technology. Pg. 276 1st paragraph: This paragraph, despite just being a funny paragraph, shows the importance of mavens. They are the ones who have the expertise on a certain subject, and are the ones to ask advice for. They know all about the subject and can cause Tipping Points by using this knowledge.
Summary/ Discussion Questions for May 4, 2010
Summary:
Malcolm Gladwell states that little things can create large differences, by cauing a Tipping Point. The Tipping point occurs due to the results of any of three factors of an epedemic. These factors are the Law of the Few, the Stickiness Factor, and the Power of Context. Sometimes only one factor is present and can cause the Tipping Point, and sometimes all three are present. The examples that Gladwell focuses on are the Hush Puppy epedemic, the New York crime rate, and the spread of Syphilis. The Three Rules of Epedemics are what cause the great changes in these examples, and several other real life factors as well. Gladwell will attempt to further explain each one of these factors in the next chapters, and go into further details.
Discussion Questions:
Do you feel that the different factors are connected? Do you feel that some factors may be more important than others? Can you think of other factors that may explain the rapid change in his examples? Do you feel that Malcolm Gladwell is correct about his theory? Do you agree with his reasoning?
Summary/ Research/ Connection for May 5, 2010
Summary:
Gladwell spends the first part of the chapter talking about those who have the ability to create Tipping Points. He states that these people are very socially inclined. For example, Paul Revere was able to use his social skills to effectively communicate his message to the people. William Dawes, however, did not have this ability. He calls the people who have this social ability Connectors. These people attatch others to even more people, and widen their span of friends. Maxwell's example of a connector was Roger Horchow. Roger has a wide span of weak ties, which he has an impulse to create. However, these small ties can be enough to have large impacts. For example, when he was getting the rights to Girl Crazy?, his connections were able to get him the rights, even though he didn't praticularly kow these people. Gladwell presents Roger Horchow as the kind of person who can create a Tipping Point. Some individuals have a talent which allow them to be very socially connected, and allows them to create a Tipping Point. By analyzing these people, we can see the types of people who can influence an event.
Research:
Paul Revere was one example presented by Malcolm Gladwell. Paul Revere was a silversmith, but also a revolutionary figure. He was politically involved through a series of connections, which may show his similarities to a connector. Despite his fame, Paul Revere was captured the longest of the three riders by the British police. Milgram was another mantioned by Gladwell. Milgram is a psychologist, and tries social experiments. Besides the one mentioned in the book, he also carried out an obediance experiment. In this, someone was asked to shock someone every time they gave a wrong answer, and increase the voltage for each wrong answer. The testers were given a shock to show it worked, but no one was actually being shocked. Behind a wall was the person answering the questions, who was acting like they were being shocked. If the testers asked if they had to shock the person, the examiners said they had too, as it was their job. Several people went above the 450 voltage mark, because they were following orders.
Works Cited
"Paul Revere A Brief Biography." The Paul Revere House. Web. 4 May 2010. <http://www.paulreverehouse.org/bio/bio.shtml>.
"Stanley Milgram." Stanley Milgram. Web. 04 May 2010. http://www3.niu.edu/acad/psych/Millis/History/2003/stanley_milgram.htm.
Connection: This book discusses how people are connectors. By taking the short quiz, I know that I am not a connector, scoring a measly score of 10. However, I don't feel that i know any connectors, although there might be someone like a connector in our school. Is anyone in our group a connector? Our class? Our grade? Our school? During the meeting, despite talking about the essential question, these would be good questions to analyze. Also, it would be good to know if anyone knows any people who seem like connectors out of school.
Summary/ Passages for May 7, 2010
Summary:
These parts of the chapter have finished the discussion about Connectors and Mavens. Connectors are the people who have a web of several connections. These connections are not exactly strong friendships, but weak ties. However, these weak ties can be very powerful when combined. These weak ties are able to bring different people from different worlds together. Mavens are the people who know about several different things. They know where to get the best deals, what is happening in the world, and are helpful in trying to share this knowledge with others. Mavens are the ones who can reccomend something, such as Hush Puppies, to a Connector, which can then spread like wildfire through the Connector's weak ties. Mavens can combine with Connectors to make small events grow large. By knowing a vast amount of information, these people are able to reccomend things to people. If it reaches a Connector, it can spread through the weak ties, turning the simple of event of a Maven reccomending something to a Connector, to an epedemic spreading to several different worlds. when analyzing the past, Connectors and Mavens are the ones to analyze. For example, Paul Revere's midnight ride shows not only his skills as a connector, but as a Maven as well. Paul Revere had several connections to several different groups of people, and was a person in charge of gathering information on the British. Thus, Paul Revere's skills can be analyzed in looking back at people.
Passages:
Page 48, Paragraph 3: In this paragraph, Gladwell classifies, as well as describes the importance of, Connectors. They either come from many different worlds, or seek to find people from different worlds. Thus, they are able to connect people from different worlds.
Page 54, Paragraph 2: In this large paragraph, Gladwell discusses "the strength of weak ties." These weak ties can be more important than strong ties. A person someone has formed a weak tie with are from a different world. They are able to know things that the other may not know. They are able to bring the person into their world, while a someone with a strong tie would be from the same world.
Page 62, Paragraph 2: Here, Mavens are classified. They are the people who know all about the world. They know the best deals, the best places to go, and they are naturally urged to share this information with people.
Page 66, Paragraph 1: Here, it is stated that Mavens like to help people solve their problems, through their experiences solving their own. Gladwell also assumes that Mavens solve their own need to help others by helping others with their problems.
Page 69, Paragraph 1: Here, Maxwell shows the difference between Mavens and Connectors. A connector can contact several people with advice, and some may take it. However, a Maven can give advice to a few people, and all of them will take it. However, both are the kinds of people that fall under the Law of the Few, and can start epedemics.
Summary/ Dicussion Questions for May 10, 2010
Summary:
The reading finishes the section on the law of few by identifying Salesmen, and has now moved on to the stickiness factor. Salesmen are people who are able to persuade other people. They are able to meet deals on their own terms, and can persuade anybody. With the social expressions that cause people to get excited, and the ability to convince people to make deals, salesman are able to create a Tipping Point. Their excitedness can make others excited. Their expressions make people mimic them. These characteristics allpow salesmen to be amazing persuaders, and can be the people who can cause a tipping point. As such, it is important to analyze in history the people that are able to persuade others. The stickiness factor is the newest desciption given by Malcolm Gladwell, and it is the ability for people to remember an event. Small events can easily become large if it does not become forgotten. The biggest example used by Gladwell is Sesame Street. They found out when children watched, if they were paying atention, and if they were actually learning. They developed ways to evaluate the stickiness factor of an event. When examining a small event in history that had large effects, it is important to see how people reacted to it, and if they continued to react to it, meaning if it stuck to people.
Discussion Questions:
We've now met all of the different types of the Law of the Few. Can you think of any historical figures, such as Paul Revere, that have the qualities of one of these special people? Do you have anyone in your life that you feel meets the criterea of one of these people? Is it possible for one person to have the characteristics of all 3 kinds?
We've been introduced to the stickiness factor. Do you feel like any events have 'stuck' to you? What defines something as sticky? How long does something have to stick, in order to create a tipping point? Can any of the above people, defined by the Law of the Few, create 'sticky' messages?
Summary/ Discussion questions for May 12, 2010
We have finished Chapter 3, about the Stickiness Factor, and moved on to the first part about the Power of Context. In the second half, we learn about some flaws in Sesame's stickiness, and how Blue's Clues improved on it. Sesame street suffers on being focused on kids and adults. Their is fancy wordplay in Sesame street that kids are not able to understand, and cause them to lose interest. Another problem is that it doesn't cause much interation with kids, meaning that they are just staring at a box. Finally, it is only just multiple short events, instead of just a story. Blue's Clues is amazingly sticky in that it does many things Sesame street doesn't, but also takes the good aspects. One things Blue's Clues does is repetition, which kids love. Another things it is allows for kid interaction. It gives wide pauses in which kids have times to give answers to Steve, an interactive host. It contains puzzles for kids to solve, and gives them a riddle to solve about Blue. Finally, by doing this, it creates a story, which children enjoy. The results are obvious in that kids create temporal worlds. When looking at history, one must look for what messages can stick to people. In the first part about the Power of Context, we learn that small changes in an enviroment are the causers of problem. This is the broken window threory. In an enviroment with lots of grafitti, crime will go up. By removing grafitti, crime will lower. When looking at history, it is important to look at the small changes in enviroment, as these can have a great impact. By making only a few small changes, a huge difference can be made.
Discussion Questions:
Do you feel that shows like Sesame Street and Blues Clues(If you watched them) have helped you at all? What sticky messages in history can you think of? Did you ever make temporal worlds?
Have you noticed any small changes in your enviroment (School, neighborhood, home) that have made a difference? Do you believe that small changes in enviroment can influence society? Can the broken window theory be used to an adavntage? Do you think that the context can make people like those described in the Law of the Few?
Summary/ Discussion Questions for May 13, 2010
Summary: (From now on, I will put a separate section adressing the Essential question, instead of mixing it in with my summary)
The reading finished up the first part of the power of context. Here, Malcolm Gladwell shows of how the outer enviroment affects the inner person. For example, when people were put in a prison enviroment, people changed into completely different people. People taking the roles of guards turned vicious and cruel. People taking the roles of prisoners became panicked, and even tried to rebel. Just by moving into a different enviroment, people changed completely. What actions people are taking is the other factor in how people behave. For example, while someone was late, they did not try to help a person lying on the street, while someone with time to spare, helped the person. Based off of this section, the Power of Context is that your enviroment and your actions can have huge effects on yourself. The Broken Window Theory, introduced earlier in the chapter, shows that the littlest of changes can have the largest of effects on a society.
Essential Question:
A single event can have a large impact if it changes the enviroment. When the enviroment changes, people will change. A single change can be the push which creates A Tipping Point. For example, when someone puts grafitti on the wall, other people see that grafitti. The power of Context states that this will cause them to be a little more influenced towards crime. If one person put up grafitti, it could cause others in that enviroment to put grafitti somewhere else, causing a tipping point in grafitti. By knowing this, it can help make descisions today. In places where crime is high, it is best to try and fix the enviroment. Where large problems appear, trying to fix the underlying source, rooted in the enviroment, will make a large difference. In the same way that grafitti on a wall can raise crime rates dramatically, removing grafitti from the wall can have the same dramatic effect in reverse. When trying to improve people's characteristics, it is best to do it in an enviroment that will positively effect them, lest the opposite effect occur.
Discussion Questions:
Have you ever done something uncharacteristic of you based off of your enviroment? Do you agree with Malcolm's statement that criminals are created from their enviroment, and not from internal problems? Do you agree that a good neighborhood is more important than a good family? When describing people, do you accept that they can be two different people, or do you clump the two personalities together?
What is the derivative of x2 ? Based off of the experiment on page 161, do you think I'm smarter than you?
Summary/ Research/ Connection for May 14, 2010
Summary:
In this chapter, Malcolm Gladwell talked about the Rule of 150. It is supported by the research of Robin Dunbar. The neo-cortex, a part of the brain in humans, differed in groups of primates. The size of the Neo-Cortex was proportional to the size of the group. Robin Dunbar created a fairly accurate equation for determining the size of a group of primates based off of the size of the Neo-Cortex. Based off of the size of the human Neo-cortex, Dunbar says that humans can handle having social relationships with about 150 people. This rule is proven further by the successful application of it. Armies are often divided into groups of less than 200 people, since this allows the soldiers to work together, and makes up for any extra soldiers that could ba added. Comapnies such as Gore, which was the prime example of Gladwell, utilize this rule and have factories separated for a group of 150 people. Gore is a multimillion dollar company which has had great success with this. Working in groups is a common action in human society, and is highly necessary for memory. Couples help share memories, so that each does not have to remember anything. The compiled knowledge bank is greater than someone would be on their own. Ya-ya, an example of something that passed the Tipping point through use of the Rule of 150, had people communicate in groups, which thus helped keep the message sticky. Reading clubs read the book and discussed it, sharing it through their groups, causing the book to tip.
Essential Question:
Once again, Gladwell stresses the immportance that a single event can have. By communicating in groups, people share information, and a message spreads through word of mouth. When spreading information, it can be good to spread it through groups that will talk about it, not only spreading a message quicker, but making it stickier as well. After seeing the effects of the Rule of 150, seen in the above paragraph, it would be good idea to use it to one's advantage. When managing groups of people, it is best to divide people into groups of 150. In groups of 150, people know each other, and know who has the best expertise for different tasks. When there is 150 people, they can share and store information effectively. If it turns larger than 150 people, information can no longer spread effectively. Thus, when managing people, they should spread out into groups of 150 people.
Research:
The Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood is a book about a mother and a dughter who argue over an article which lists the mother as child abuser. The mother is part of a sisterhood called the Yayas. The Yayas wish to bring the two back together. As such, they convince Vivi to send a scrapbook called Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood to Siddalee. Sidda only gains more questions about her mother from this, and the story into both of their lives begins.
Gore was a unique company mentioned in our book. Today, it has 9000 "associates", located in over 30 countries. Their most known products are the Gore-Tex ones, which are the Fabrics created by the company. They do not have bosses, but sponsors. This produces an efective community in which all can work well. It has 4 guiding principles that associates follow: fairness to each other and everyone with whom they come in contact, freedom to encourage, help, and allow other associates to grow in knowledge, skill, and scope of responsibility, the ability to make one's own commitments and keep them, and consultation with other associates before undertaking actions that could impact the reputation of the company.
Works Cited
"About Gore." W. L. Gore & Associates. Web. 13 May 2010. <http://www.gore.com/en_xx/aboutus/index.html>.
"Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood: A Novel by Rebecca Wells." HarperCollins Publishers — Home of Collins, William Morrow, Avon, Harper Perennial, Rayo, Amistad, Caedmon Audio. Web. 13 May 2010. http://www.harpercollins.com/books/9780060173289/Divine_Secrets_of_the_YaYa_Sisterhood/index.aspx.
Connection:
While we are reading The Tipping Point, we are being the kinds of people who could create a tipping point for the book. In this chapter, they talk about how people would read and discuss a book, and it caused a Tipping point for it. And nearly every school day, we come to class to talk and discuss about the book. As a reading group, we are in fact part of what we are reading.
Our high school is currently at a rather low population, lower than 150. Right now, people are able to know each other well. When/if we pass the 150 mark, will this kind of social web we have fade?
Have we ever felt the limits of the Rule of 150? I doubt many of us have made 150 social connections, so I doubt it in that way. But has it ever occured in another way?
Summary/ Research/ Connection for May 17/ 18 2010
Summary:
Having presented all of the information to use, Malcolm Gladwell has begun giving examples for his claims. We have read through his examples of Airwalk shoes, and have starting reading about the spread of smoking and suicides. Airwalk shoes started as a rather contained epedemic, since it had not yet become worldwide. eventually going worldwide, they hit their Tipping Point in the Mid-1990's. This was due to their fantastic advertising, which showed what Gladwell calls Translation. These commercials looked into what the innovators, the people who first like a product, were looking into. They then focused the shoes based off of that information. By that time, the fad would have become mainstream, meaning that it has spread to the majority, and the company would take advantage of it. They tweaked the popular subject and made it funny. They translated a popular subject into something everyone could understand. This made their products sticky, and made them sell well. In the nextsection, we learn about how smoking and suicides are spreadable. When someone commits suicide, and it is publically spread, they give other people subconcious permission to kill themselves. This causes suicide rates to increase. Smoking is similar. When someone cool smokes, other people are likely to smoke as well. The cool people are the translators of the product. The cool people themselves aren't cool because they smoke, but they smoke because they are cool. Advertising had little to do with the spread of smoking, but it those few, illiustrated by the Law of the Few, who push smoking forward.
Essential Question:
These chapters were very important in showing how important a single person can be, and even talk about issues that are discussed today. The first section outlines how important translators, the people who allow people to understand things from specialized worlds, can be. In understaning rumors spread, translators are important. They leave unnecessary details out, exagerate some parts, and tweak the rest. If one had to spread through a rumor, they would have to use these tools to make the rumor spreadable. The most important application in these sections refers to smoking and suicide. When trying to lower the number of people who smoke, it is important to understand why it starts. It is not because of smoking commercials, which are extremely limited, but because of the "cool" people who smoke, who are salesman providing the message that smoking is ok. People who smoke even overestimate the number of years of life they lose. Thus, if someone wanted to lower the number of people smoking, they shouldn't aim for smoking commercials or try to tell people that smoking will ruin their lives, but instead try to convince poeple that smoking is not "cool", which is why poeple try in the first place.
Research:
Airwalk is a footwear company founded in 1986. It has sponsored famous skaters such as Tony Hawk and Jason Lee. It had a great increase in sales in the 1990's, when it decided to go mainstream. However, older fans of the store were not as fond for the new mainstream versions. In 2004, they were bought by Collective Liscensing International. They were very well advertised after the company was remade. They have decided lately to reproduce some of their more original brands. Crossing the Chasm is a book written by Geoffrey Moore in 1991, and was mentioned in the section. The book speaks about innovators, early adopters, and the early majority mainly. It discusses on how to cross the chasm that comes between the early adopters and the early majority. It speaks about how the innovators and early majority have to be captured before the chasm can be crossed. Innovators and early adopters are talked about during our book, to show how popularity of certain items spread.
Works Cited
"Airwalk." Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Web. 16 May 2010. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Airwalk>.
Iskold, Alex. "Rethinking 'Crossing The Chasm'" ReadWriteWeb - Web Apps, Web Technology Trends, Social Networking and Social Media. Web. 16 May 2010. http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/rethinking_crossing_the_chasm.php.
Connection:
These sections had examples of the material we have learned about, and we are now getting into things that are closer to our own lives. The first section speaks about many different things.
Do we have any translators at our school? Would the translator be a connector, salesman, or maven?
Are you an innovator, an early adopter, an early majority, a late majority, or a laggard? Do you know any people who are innovators?
Do you know any rumors, where it has recieved the kind of tweaks named in the chapter? Have you spread rumors, and tweaked them a bit?
Do you know anyone who makes smoking seem "cool"? Have you ever considered smoking because of it?
Summary/ Passages for May 21, 2010
Summary:
With this assignment, we have finished the book. It has finished the section on smoking, and has moved on to the conclusion and the afterword. In the smoking section, Malcolm Gladwell addressed more issues of smoking, and introduced two solutions to the smoking solution. He starts by talking about chippers, and that many people try smoking, but few people become regular smokers. It was found that this was proportional to how good they felt after their first smoke. People who got a strong buzz after their first smoke would become regular smokers, but those who didn’t feel anything would not start up a habit of smoking. Some people who smoke do not actually smoke every day. This is greatly determined by the person’s genes, since it determines how much nicotine the person can take in one day. People with high tolerance might be heavy smokers, while people with low tolerance will probably not smoke. Influencing people to not smoke is also very difficult, even for parents. The peers of the kids are greater at influencing kids to smoke, rather than parents. In fact, the fact that adults don’t want teenagers to smoke makes the kids very prone to smoking, as they want to be rebellious and take place in something dangerous. Gladwell’s first idea of on how to stop smoking is to chemically remove the need for smoking. When people have depression, they have a lack of neurotransmitters in the brain that help regulate mood. When people smoke, they actually ingest some of these chemicals. This allows people who are depressed to get over their depression through smoking. In the same way, smoking can be stopped by providing medicine that provides these chemicals. This is because it can add the chemicals needed to prevent depression, meaning people do not have to smoke to get these chemicals. His second idea is to make experimentation safer. Few people who ever tried drugs ever became regular users. However, there were a lot of people who did try. Kids will experiment, and the goal is to make sure that they don’t become hooked from the experiment, not stop them from experimenting. Experimenting is the way they learn.
The next section was Gladwell’s conclusion on his theory. He states how large events, despite our natural belief, do not have to be the result of large changes or large projects. Changing things in a modest, but precise, way will have the biggest impact. He states that people react based off their environment more than what they feel they should do. A simple change in environment can radically change a person’s personality. Overall, he states that all it takes to create a dramatic change is a small change in the right place.
Gladwell’s final section is the afterword, where he speaks about the effects of his book, the changes in some of his theories, the things he left out in his book, and the location of the elusive people in the law of the few. He discusses how people were able to use the information in his book to make modest changes in order to make large changes. However, he also talked about the Columbine shootings, and how they created a shooting epidemic, which he calls an epidemic of isolation, which he did not think was possible in the western teen world. However, he also states how it only makes sense to the teens that inhabit that world. Gladwell mentions that he did not talk much about immunity in his book, even though it is still important. He discusses how people are becoming immune to the telephone, emails, and commercials. They are all easy forms of communication, but there are so many have become immune to them. He states that the cure to this immunity is Connectors, Mavens, and Salesman. Continuing this he tells us how to find these people. He says that Connectors find you most of the time, with their large web of connections. He says that maven traps are needed to catch mavens. People have to provide something to mavens, so they can start an epidemic in the person’s favor. For example, Lexus provided large amounts of service to people during a recall. Soon after, mavens spread the news of such great service to people, improving Lexus’s sales. Overall, Gladwell’s theories have had a great effect on people and continue to be true, even today.
Essential Question:
Now that we have finished the book, the essential question is much easier to answer. The importance of a single event can be huge, depending on how it plays out. If it is aimed at the correct area, it can cause an epidemic. Gladwell’s big example is hush puppies. A few kids started wearing Hush Puppies. Soon, everyone started wearing Hush Puppies as it tipped. A small event carried out by a connector, maven, or salesman can have a large effect. A connector can spread something through a giant web of acquaintances. A maven can spread things with the expertise on certain subjects. A Salesman can spread something through the power of persuasion. An event can also have large effect if it changes the environment. We learned that removing graffiti from the walls was able to reduce crime in the city, and that telling people they were late turned them into a bad civilian. In the same way, any event effecting the environment can have an effect on the personality of the people. Observing these people and these events, it is easy to make a decision on how to maximize the potential of an event. When trying to create an epidemic of any kind, large changes are not needed, but precise changes are. Look for the connectors who would be able to spread information through large groups of people. Look for the mavens who are the experts in the subject, who are able to spread epidemics with their great knowledge. Look for the Salesman who would be able to persuade people with their great enthusiasm and convincing nature to spread the epidemic. Try to change the epidemic slightly to make it stick. In order to do this, try to keep people interested in the epidemic, with an incentive to pay attention, and to make it understandable, so people will not turn away in frustration. Finally, the event should try to change the environment in its favor. So if someone is trying to reduce crime in an area, reduce the amount of lesser crimes by removing graffiti and enforcing punishments for trivial crimes. Overall, when trying to create a large effect from a single event, use specific types of people and focus on making changes to specific areas.
Passage Master:
Pg. 234 2nd Paragraph: This states that the stickiness of a cigarette for a smoker is related to their first smoke. The better their first smoke, the heavier smoker they became. Here is an example of the stickiness of an epidemic.
Pg. 241 2nd Paragraph: This paragraph shows the result of nature vs. nurture being in nature’s favor. It states how kids and their biological kids are very similar, while kids and their adoptive parents are not very similar at all. However, it takes care not to confuse us that the environment isn’t important. In fact, it says that the most important environmental influence is not parents, but peers. This is important in realizing how the smoking epidemic spreads.
Pg. 246 2nd Paragraph: This paragraph talks about the success of the drug Zyban in curing smokers of their addiction. However, it shows an important part of curing the epidemic. In order to stop something, you have to remove the need for them. By adding the neurotransmitters that people suffering from depression lack, that smoking also provides, people no longer feel they have to smoke. In order to stop something like smoking, you have to remove the need for it. You have to remove the stickiness of it.
Pg. 256 2nd Paragraph: Here, Gladwell states the importance of “Band-Aid” solutions. Large complicated solutions do not have to be the cause of large changes. Small changes can be the sources of large changes, which is an important part of Gladwell’s theory.
Pg. 271 2nd Paragraph: This passage shows the unique community of teens. He shows how epidemics of isolation, which he thought was impossible among western teenagers, are actually possible. He shows how teens now have technology to communicate with each other which replaces the communication with parents. Teenagers have their own culture now which epidemics are able to spread.
Pg. 275 2nd Paragraph: Here Gladwell shows the importance of immunity and the cure for it. Today, technology has allowed for easy communication, but we have become immune to it due to its overuse. Gladwell states that those mentioned in the Law of the Few are the cure, as they are masters of word of mouth, which is made more important by the immunity to easy technology.
Pg. 276 1st paragraph: This paragraph, despite just being a funny paragraph, shows the importance of mavens. They are the ones who have the expertise on a certain subject, and are the ones to ask advice for. They know all about the subject and can cause Tipping Points by using this knowledge.